First Round
Time passed rather swiftly in the Eternal Heaven Divine Realm. Before Aerion knew it, the first round of the Profound God Convention was going to start in mere minutes.
"My Lord, you have certainly mastered the profound way of gaining a ladies' favour."
Aerion chuckled. "Perhaps, I have. What do you think of the two sisters?"
"You should answer that question first."
"Hmm, very well, I quite like Meiyin. She's rather mysterious and even more so, mischievous. They're both beautiful but to me, Meiyin stands out... but she's too young, unfortunately."
"A difference of eleven years isn't much. The Demon Empress is over a hundred years older than you, after all... I don't see her or yourself having a problem with that."
"I suppose you're right about that... I'm starting to feel like I'm unnecessarily limiting myself." Aerion sighed.
"I remember you said something about seven wives, right? An Emperor should have as many as he pleases, that is what I believe. This way you'll also be able to expand your influence within the God Realm which will make your goals easier to achieve. One day, you will rule Primal Chaos... why limit yourself, the mightest and most desirable, to seven?"
"You have opened my eyes." Aerion smiled. "Thank you, Robb... I will never have too many but I won't restrict myself either."
"Good... about your question, I honestly prefer Yingyue."
"I could see you two being together, but you'll need to gain a high position in this Profound God Convention before thinking of these things. The Realm King of the Glazed Light Realm wouldn't accept a mediocre son-in-law."
Robb nodded. "I'll try my very best."
"I'm sure you'll have promising results." Aerion grabbed his shoulder. "I've never been the most faithful person but I know that faith can make a person happier, more cheerful. The Gods are a pillar to which people can lean on... enough said, may the Warrior give you the courage and strength to proceed onto the next round!"
"The Warrior... coincidentally, that is the one which I pray to most. With your blessing added onto that, My Lord, victory is already guaranteed."
"I'm glad to hear that."
Battlefield 69... so that is where I'll fight.
The Voice of Eternal Heaven stated the rules and how the first round would play out. Complete projections of each and every participant will be enter the Eternal Heaven Pearl which means no real harm will be done to their real bodies. There are a thousand separate battlefields and the participants would be equally distributed into them. From each battlefield, only the top ten will be able to proceed to the next round which meant that, by the second round, only ten thousand would be left.
The participants would be ranked by 'soul orbs' which are earned by slaying profound beasts. A Divine Soul profound beast would give one to five soul orbs, a Divine Tribulation beast would give ten to thirty soul orbs and a Divine Spirit beast would give three hundred soul orbs. If multiple people take down a single beast, then the soul orbs would be distributed by amount of damage dealt.
If you die, you get revived in the main city and lose thirty per cent of your soul orbs as a result. If another profound practitioner killed you, they get the thirty per cent you lost. But a profound practitioner can only take your soul orbs once so constantly killing the same person wouldn't result in any profit.
The main city is a safe zone but you lose ten per cent of your soul orbs for every hour you spend in there so staying there isn't the best strategy. If one truly wanted to compete, they would have to constantly face the challenge. The first round was set to last a whole month which is a pretty long time.
There were no restrictions to the means one could use to achieve their goals such as profound formations, treasures, weapons or armour. Anything was permitted, essentially.
Can this round start already?
Aerion yawned in boredom.
"The time has come! I hereby officially announce the start of the first preliminary round of the Profound God Convention!"
"Young experts of the Eastern Divine Region, rush to the battlefield that only belongs to you!"
BOOOM.
Everyone around him started to fly as soon as it was possible to do so. The geniuses were eager to prove their worth and gain prestige among their peers. Over fifty thousand participants on each battlefield... it was rather lively.
Aerion confidently took out his bow and inspected it. It was made when he got bored and wanted to test out his archery skills. Now it has a better use and that is effortlessly sniping profound beasts from a distance!
I bet not a single one of these profound practitioners ever used a bow... well, it is (obviously) inferior to close range weapons in close range combat which is usually the range where battles occur. But, in this instance, the bow is far more useful.
Aerion soared into the skies and formed thousands of small arrows out of wind profound energy. Then he swiftly sent each one after a profound beast.
Shew.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Once he was done, Aerion checked his current ranking.
Aerion Targaryen—Origin: Snow Song Realm, Soul Orbs: 120469, Rank in Battle Zone: 1, Overall Rank: 1.
Is that a lot?
Hmm, nevermind, I'll keep going.
~
After a day, the people from the Snow Song Realm and Fire God Realm wished to see how their disciples had done. After a day, the rankings would be only mere approximations as one could easily drop down or rise up in ranking throughout the first round. This was also a way of competing against each other, to see which star realm has stronger disciples.
Yan Mingxuan—Origin: Phoenix Sect of the Flame God Realm, Rank in Battle Zone: 105, Overall Rank: 98432.
Yan Zhuo—Origin: Vermillion Bird Sect of the Flame God Realm, Rank in Battle Zone: 42, Overall Rank: 44600.
"Hmm, Zhuo'er did surpass my expectations." Yun Wancang stated, pleased with son's performance.
Mu Yunzhi checked her own disciple's ranking. "Mu Hanyi is currently placed five hundred and thirty thousandth!" She laughed. "As expected of my disciple."
Mu Huanzhi checked Mu Feixue's ranking. "Feixue… is placed at five hundred and twenty thousandth!" He roared with joy. "Hahaha, as expected of my granddaughter, she is indeed outstanding!"
"Mu Feixue and Mu Hanyi certainly have not disappointed us, ranking this high would mean trampling on many late-stage Divine Tribulation Realm profound practitioners. I wonder, how are my two disciples doing..."
Izanami Uchiha—Origin: Snow Song Realm, Rank in Battle Zone: 1, Overall Rank: 3
Robb—Origin: Snow Song Realm, Rank in Battle Zone: 11, Overall Rank: 11739
"T...third!?"
"Third!?"
They gathered around Mu Bingyun and saw it with their own eyes. "They were only in the Divine Origin Realm the last time I saw them..."
"How did they managed to grow so quickly... this should be impossible..."
"It is probably the doing of the Realm King's heavenly genius, Aerion Targaryen." Mu Huanzhi smiled. "Speaking of Aerion, we have yet to check his ranking..."
"There is no need, we already know that he has claimed first place." Mu Yunzhi countered.
"How can you be this confident?" Huo Rulie asked.
"He brokethrough to the Divine King Realm." Mu Bingyun replied.
"The... the... Divine King Realm!? That's a joke right?" Huo Rulie laughed.
"No, not at all."
Huo Rulie checked Aerion's ranking. "F-first... he's actually first!"
Huanzhi nodded. "He is Snow Song's most valuable treasure, after all."
~
"Only the top eleven thousand... I should pick up the pace." Robb muttered to himself.
ROAAAR.
A Divine Spirit Realm profound beast charged at him. His golden eyes had already started to burn with fury.
Hmph.
He slaughtered the beast with ease as his newly forged spear pierced right through. After every profound beast kill, his bloodlust increased and so did his strength. Slowly, but surely, he was able to use more of his legacy.
Strength to kill profound beasts... I need more of it!
Kill, kill, kill... I need to kill more!!!
It seemed as if a dormant, bloodthirsty, animal had awakened from within Robb. His spear became the victim of hundreds... thousands... tens of thousands! He had become a merciless killing machine who simply could not be defeated. Whenever he was wounded, a golden aura would appear to instantly heal his wounds. As he raged on, his eyes turned red with pure killing intent and his entire body started to glow a frightening golden aura.
His strength soared far past the late-stage Divine Tribulation Realm and into the upper-echelons of the Divine Spirit Realm. Wu Guike was the first ranked profound practitioner on his battlefield but that was no longer true after he encountered the war god that was Robb. He was nothing more than a sheep when faced against Robb, who was comparable to a golden lion. In fact, his aura loosely formed a golden lion once in a while but it wasn't anything permanent.
Robb had absolutely crushed Wu Guike, someone who he would have run away from previously. The difference between their skill and strength became clear when Wu Guike's halberd didn't even manage to deal a good blow while Robb's spear had impaled and slashed Wu Guike multiple times.
"Good, turn the blood of your enemies into fuel... fuel which leads to even greater strength!" A high and mighty voice told him.
I will slaughter everything which stands in my way...
~
It's finally over, huh.
Aerion decided to check the rankings for the first time.
First: Aerion Targaryen, Snow Song Realm, 1,000,000,000 Soul Orbs
Second: Izanami Uchiha, Snow Song Realm, 14,000,000 Soul Orbs
Third: Luo Changsheng, Holy Eaves Realm, 13,507,941 Soul Orbs
Fourth: Shui Yingyue, Glazed Light Realm, 12,700,157 Soul Orbs
Fifth: Jun Xilei, Jasper Heart Sword Pavilion, 11,231,794 Soul Orbs
Sixth: Lu Lengchaun, Sky Shrouding Realm, 9,823,274 Soul Orbs
Seventh: Robb, Snow Song Realm, 9,792,308 Soul Orbs
So, the second-highest was Izanami with fourteen million... while I have one billion. Robb made the top seven as well, that's rather... surprising. A pleasant surprise, though, to be sure.
Millions of projections were sent back as they did not have the qualifications to proceed onto the next round. Now only the top ten thousand remained.
Onto the second round.